Marie-Michèle Lemieux
Content editor at the Observatoire sur la réussite en enseignement supérieur and research officer in university pedagogy at the Université du Québec Head Office
Observatoire sur la réussite en enseignement supérieur
Number 6 – 2023
To cite this article
Marie-Michèle Lemieux
Content editor at the Observatoire sur la réussite en enseignement supérieur and research officer in university pedagogy at the Université du Québec Head Office
Observatoire sur la réussite en enseignement supérieur
This article features results from a research project aimed at analyzing, according to the educational intervention model, pedagogical practices used for integrating digital technologies likely to support digital competency development among university students.
For further details, please consult: Lemieux, M.-M. (2020). Apport du manuel numérique intégré à une intervention éducative sur le développement de compétences numériques d’étudiants universitaires. [Doctoral dissertation, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières].
The integration of digital technologies into teaching and learning practices has been a challenge for the education system in recent decades. As early as in 2000, the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation (CSE) pointed out that the Québec education system was witnessing a technological revolution that would directly affect teaching methods and learning tools (CSE, 2000). Twenty years later, the reflection has now transitioned to the responsibility of the education system toward competency development to evolve in the digital world (CSE, 2020).
The sound integration of digital technology into teaching and learning practices thereby leads to digital competency development for both teachers and learners. Going beyond the sole use of digital technologies, their integration into a pedagogical context requires a constant updating of knowledge and of multiple competencies. Supporting digital competency development is now targeted as a new responsibility for educational institutions, including at the university level (CSE, 2020). Identified as essential for promoting social and professional integration (Ng, 2012; Roy, Gareau & Poellhuber, 2018), these competencies are unevenly distributed among students, which may lead to digital inequalities (Collin, Guichon & Ntébutsé, 2015) that can have an impact on equity of access to university studies and success.
There is still a conceptual vagueness in the scientific literature to define digital competencies. However, according to the various reference frameworks consulted in the course of our work (Lemieux, 2020), we have noted the marked presence of the following categories of competencies:
Mastery of technologies, while not always an essential condition, is considered in synergy with the other competencies.
Beyond these three categories, and in order to cover all possible digital technology uses, we have identified other categories in line with the contexts and objectives underlined by the people who have worked on the reference frameworks consulted. Examples include media competencies, productive competencies related to creativity or content creation and problem solving, competencies related to safety, identity and well-being, or professional life.
Anticipating the Future in Order to Foster Better Actions and Assess the Contribution of Digital Technologies in Students’ Digital Competency Development
Built according to an adaptation of the educational intervention model (Lenoir, 2009), our case study allowed us to look into the pedagogical activities used for integrating a digital textbook in the curriculum and its contribution to the development of learners’ digital competencies. The perceptions of the individuals involved in the pedagogical relationship (learners and their teacher) as well as the researcher’s observations were collected throughout the semester.
The digital textbook was defined as a didactic work, i.e. which included the content to be acquired/taught, the objectives, the pedagogical methods and means to be used as well as possible evaluations. It was edited and distributed digitally, and intended for use on screen (Université du Québec, 2013).
The data collection methods used were associated with the pre-active, interactive and post-active phases of educational intervention in order to collect provoked (student questionnaires), elicited (semi-structured interviews and student focus groups) and invoked (observations) data. The complementarity and repetition involved in data collection made it possible to ensure data triangulation.
The three-phase methodology allowed us to take an evolutionary look at the perceptions of the individuals (learners and their professor) who made use of the technologies and the contribution of the latter with respect to students’ digital competency development.
An initial overestimation of students’ digital competencies prevailed at the beginning of the semester.
Whether on the part of the professor or learners, there was an overestimation of students’ digital competencies at the beginning of the semester. This overestimation was noted by the professor and identified in the discourse of learners and their professor. This, from the outset, hindered the creation of conditions conducive to the use of digital technologies for learning purposes. However, over the course of the sessions, the perception of those involved with regard to the mobilization of certain competencies through the use of digital technologies evolved.
Students experienced difficulties using the digital textbook.
The evolution of the professor’s perceptions is based in particular on the difficulties encountered by students in their learning. Inspired by the work of Araújo-Oliveira (2012), these can be classified into three types of difficulties :
In order to overcome some of the difficulties associated with the use of digital technology, as well as to foster learning, it was necessary to mobilize certain digital competencies.
La mobilisation des compétences numériques a été influencée par le contexte.
Over the course of the data collection process, a progression in perceptions, but also discrepancies, were identified with regard to the contribution of digital technologies in students’ digital competency development. In the course of using the digital textbook, both the professor and the students came to identify that this technology had contributed to the development of certain competencies. For student respondents, these competencies included:
On the other end of the spectrum, the least mobilized competencies according to student respondents were:
These data are consistent with what the professor reported during the interviews.
Adapting the educational intervention model makes it possible to integrate digital technologies wisely while supporting digital competency development.
The study leads us to consider the integration of any digital technology as a dynamic pedagogical process. To support this integration and the contribution to digital competency development, the adaptation of the educational intervention model is a relevant methodology that can be used to provide answers to the questions below.
The application of this methodology:
Creating multiple conditions to remove barriers to digital competency development is paramount.
In order to limit the digital inequalities that may be created by the integration of digital technologies, and thus promote digital competency development, it is suggested to implement certain conditions in pedagogical practices to support teaching and learning with digital technologies. Drawing on the work of Depover and Strebelle (1997), possible support can be classified according to the three categories of conditions below :
For teachers
At the institutional level
Lemieux, M.-M. (2021). Inégalités, compétences et conditions numériques. Revue internationale des technologies en pédagogie universitaire (RITPU), 18(1), 157-169.
Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur. (2019). Cadre de référence de la compétence numérique. Gouvernement du Québec.
Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur. (2019). Continuum de développement de la compétence numérique. Gouvernement du Québec.
Araújo-Oliveira, A. (2012). Étude des pratiques d’enseignement en sciences humaines au primaire : le cas des futurs enseignants en contexte de formation en milieu de pratique au Québec. Nouveaux cahiers de la recherche en éducation, 15(2), 64-96.
Collin, S., Guichon, N. & Ntébutsé, J. G. (2015). Une approche sociocritique des usages numériques en éducation. Sticef, 22, 89-117.
Conseil supérieur de l’éducation [CSE]. (2000). Éducation et nouvelles technologies : pour une intégration réussie dans l’enseignement et l’apprentissage. Rapport annuel 1999-2000 sur l’état et les besoins de l’éducation. Le Conseil.
Conseil supérieur de l’éducation [CSE]. (2020). Éduquer au numérique: Rapport sur l’état et les besoins de l’éducation 2018-2020. Le Conseil.
Depover, C. & Strebelle, A. (1997). Un modèle et une stratégie d’intervention en matière d’intégration des TIC dans le processus éducatif. Université de Mons-Hainaut.
Lemieux, M.-M. (2023). A Research Methodology Aimed at Analyzing Teaching Practices in Relation to the Development of Digital Skills in a University Setting. In P. Fastrez & N. Landry (ed.), Media Literacy and Media Education Research Methods: A Handbook (pp. 141-160). Taylor & Francis.
Lenoir, Y. (2009). L’intervention éducative, un construit théorique pour analyser les pratiques d’enseignement. Nouveaux cahiers de la recherche en éducation, 12(1), 9-29.
Ng, W. (2012). Can we teach digital natives digital literacy? Computers and Education, 59(3), 1065-1078.
Roy, N., Gareau, A. & Poellhuber, B. (2018). Les natifs du numérique aux études : enjeux et pratiques – The Digital Natives in Education: Issues and Practices. La revue canadienne de l’apprentissage et de la technologie, 44(1), 1-24.
Université du Québec. (2013). Guide de conception et d’utilisation du manuel numérique en contexte universitaire. Université du Québec.
Editor: Karine Vieux-Fort
Editorial Committee: Karine Vieux-Fort, Anouk Lavoie-Isebaert and Amélie Descheneau-Guay
Linguistic Review: Marie-Eve Cloutier
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
ISSN 2817-2817
This document was produced with the financial support of the gouvernement du Québec, under the Canada-Québec Agreement.
About the author
Marie-Michèle Lemieux
Content editor at the Observatoire sur la réussite en enseignement supérieur and research officer in university pedagogy at the Université du Québec Head Office
Observatoire sur la réussite en enseignement supérieur
Marie-Michèle Lemieux is a graduate of the Université du Québec à Rimouski with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education. She also holds a doctorate in education from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), which she received in 2020. From the very beginning of her career in education, she has been interested in the pedagogical integration of digital technology. In addition to her position as a research professional in university pedagogy at the head office of the Université du Québec, which she has held since 2010, she sat on the executive committee of the Communauté pour l’Innovation et la Recherche sur les Technologies dans l’enseignement/Apprentissage (CIRTA) and participated in the work of the Comité du rapport sur l’état et les besoins de l’éducation (2020) of the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation. Since 2021, she has had the pleasure of sharing her acquired knowledge and competencies with future teachers by acting as a lecturer, for the UQTR, on the pedagogical use of digital technology. In 2023, she joined the Observatoire sur la réussite en enseignement supérieur as content editor.